扑 (pū): to throw oneself at, to pounce on, to devote one's energies

扑 (pū) is a Chinese character meaning “to throw oneself at.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 卜 (phonetic). It ranks #1499 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 扑 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to throw oneself at
  2. to pounce on
  3. to devote one's energies

Etymology & Origin

扑

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌卜 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

Practice writing 扑 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 扑

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
扑灭verbpū mièto eradicate6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
扑克nounpū kèpoker (game) (loanword)
扑克牌nounpū kè páipoker (card game)
相扑nounxiāng pūsumo wrestling
扑通nounpū tōng(onom.) sound of object falling into water
扑救verbpū jiùfirefighting
扑朔迷离phrasepū shuò mí líimpossible to unravel
猛扑měng pūto charge
扑鼻verbpū bíto assail the nostrils (of fragrance and odors)
扑腾verbpū teng(onom.) thud
反扑verbfǎn pūto counterattack
扑面而来pū miàn ér láilit. sth hits one in the face
拓扑nountuò pū(math.) (loanword) topology
扑空verbpū kōnglit. to rush at thin air
扑面adverbpū miànlit. sth hits one in the face
红扑扑adjectivehóng pū pūred
49
Total compounds
55
As first character
18
As last character
27
As middle character

扑 appears in 49 compound words: 55 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 27 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 扑 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

拓tuò
0.7498,712 co-occurrences
灭miè
0.5621,558 co-occurrences
迅xùn
0.53210 co-occurrences
熊xióng
0.46711 co-occurrences
缘yuán
0.465486 co-occurrences
赶gǎn
0.45312 co-occurrences
绝jué
0.433574 co-occurrences
救jiù
0.411804 co-occurrences
灾zāi
0.394204 co-occurrences
空kōng
0.3761,310 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

颠扑不破diān pū bù pòHSK 7+

solid; unbreakable; (fig.) irrefutable; incontrovertible; indisputable

phrase
饿虎扑食è hǔ pū shíHSK 6+

like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey

phrase
扑朔迷离pūshuòmílí

confusing; bewildering

phrase
异香扑鼻yì xiāng pū bíHSK 6+

exotic odors assail the nostrils (idiom)

phrase
飞蛾扑火fēi'épūhuǒHSK 6+

to court self-destruction; to look for someone's own demise

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他扑了一个电话,约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā pū le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He made a phone call to arrange dinner with a friend that evening.

Am730Feb 2026

...顶层最后1伙特色户“双破顶” 标售 尺价扑近3万|九龙湾新盘

. . . dǐng céng zuì hòu 1 huǒ tè sè hù shuāng pò dǐng biāo shòu chǐ jià pū jìn 3 wàn jiǔ lóng wān xīn pán

... The last unit of the top floor "double broke the top" was sold at a price of nearly 30,000 yuan per square foot|Kowloon Bay new project

東方日報Feb 2026

禾确特:红军快入局轻松扑锤

hé què tè : hóng jūn kuài rù jú qīng sōng pū chuí

Hequete: The Reds are quick to enter the game and easily pounce on the hammer

LtnFeb 2026

吴宗宪、高捷现身士林!“德州扑克协会”祭300万奖金 开幕星光炸裂

wú zōng xiàn , gāo jié xiàn shēn shì lín ! dé zhōu pū kè xié huì jì 3 0 0 wàn jiǎng jīn kāi mù xīng guāng zhà liè

Wu Zongxian and Gao Jie appeared in Shilin!" Texas Hold'em Association" sacrificed 3 million prize money to open with stars

StheadlineFeb 2026

上海客“扑机票”昨夜来港买豪宅 老业主捱眼瞓签约 ...

shàng hǎi kè pū jī piào zuó yè lái gǎng mǎi háo zhái lǎo yè zhǔ 捱 yǎn 瞓 qiān yuē . . .

Shanghai guests "pounced on air tickets" came to Hong Kong last night to buy a mansion, and the old owner stayed up late to sign a contract...

百度新闻Feb 2026

排山倒海 扑面而来!六百只宋代瓷碗在这叠成墙

pái shān dǎo hǎi pū miàn ér lái ! liù bǎi zhī sòng dài cí wǎn zài zhè dié chéng qiáng

Overwhelming and coming! Six hundred Song Dynasty porcelain bowls are stacked on this wall

Tatoeba

把扑克牌放在橡木桌上。

Bǎ pūkèpái fàng zài xiàngmù zhuō shàng.

Place the deck of cards on the oaken table.

Tatoeba

要即时扑灭那火灾并不容易。

Yào jíshí pūmiè nà huǒzāi bìngbù róngyì.

It was not easy to put out the fire at once.

Tatoeba

我刚打开锅盖,一股恶臭就扑鼻而来。

Wǒ gāng dǎkāi guōgài, yī gǔ èchòu jiù pūbí ér lái.

I just opened the lid, and a foul smell filled my nose.

Tatoeba

火很快便被扑熄了,房子只受到轻微损坏。

Huǒ hěn kuài biàn bèi pū xī le, fángzi zhǐ shòudào qīngwēi sǔnhuài.

The house did not suffer much damage because the fire was quickly put out.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced pū

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 扑 (pū) mean in Chinese?
扑 (pū) primarily means "to throw oneself at." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1499 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 扑 and 补?
扑 (pū) and 补 (bǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 衤 (same 卜 component).
How many strokes does 扑 have?
扑 is written with 5 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 扑?
The radical associated with 扑 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 扑?
扑 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 卜 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌卜 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 扑?
Common words with 扑 include: 扑克 (pū kè, "poker (game) (loanword)"); 扑灭 (pū miè, "to eradicate"); 扑克牌 (pū kè pái, "poker (card game)"); 相扑 (xiāng pū, "sumo wrestling"); 扑通 (pū tōng, "(onom.) sound of object falling into water"). There are over 49 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 扑 (pū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pū: 仆 (servant), 普 (general, universal), 铺 (store), 葡 (grape), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 扑 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 扑 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 扑 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.